The effects of transient heat release rate and crosswind on flame length and tilt angle of flames at different positions in the spread of fire over a diesel pool

Abstract

Summary The spread of fire over liquid fuel is a common phenomenon, and it has been demonstrated experimentally that the flame length and tilt angle change with the transient heat release rate and different positions of the flame. The coupling relationship between these factors is studied in this paper. The experiments are composed of a rectangular pool with dimensions of 80 cm × 6 cm × 5 cm and crosswind with speeds of 0.8 to 2.4 m/s. Diesel is used as the fuel, and a new method is applied to ensure that the initial temperature of the diesel is constant during ignition. The results show that the traditional method of luminous flame intermittency may not be suitable for studying the geometric characteristics of the spread of fire over a pool, and a new method is proposed. In addition, the transient variation of flame length in different positions of the pool is shown to fluctuate around a mean flame length. The evolution of flame tilt angle along the longitudinal direction of the pool exhibits a U‐shaped curve. Moreover, the multivariate nonlinear relationships of mean flame length and tilt angle among the heat release rate, fire position, and wind speed are established, and relevant coefficients are determined.